Halloween 2022: Choose Your Spooky Outcome: Chapter 4
The suggestion to go out together stops dead on your tongue, flashes of fingers and teeth tearing into your flesh. Overwhelmed by the momentary distress, you stagger forward, in the process tilting your head slightly toward Jim. Your roommate takes this as an order, digging around for several more seconds before yanking out a familiar object.
As a hammer, it isn’t all too impressive, certainly nothing someone would right myths about. But the decorative stickers of lightning bolts arranged to look like what might very generously be called a person fashioned to it’s handle are crackling with power. Maybe it’s leftover juice from being magicked real so many times, maybe the rules of this place have some Halloween overlap.
Whatever the cause, you grin as the waves of fear and flickers of death fade away, hope surging through you. “Jim’s right. He’s got this.”
“Does he now?”
You aren’t surprised when ghouls come ripping through the walls and windows again, but it’s already too late. Lifting the hammer overhead, Jim screams to the heavens. “Wherever good times are in danger of being harshed, Godpunch Lightning-Fucker will be there!”
A boom rattles the house as the kitchen is consumed in an explosion of crackling energy, causing a shockwave that sends the ghouls scattering. When the dust clears, Jim is adorned in the full costume of Godpunch Lightning-Fucker, the character he made an entire comic for about order to justify the over-powered costume.
Through the hole in your home that used to be a kitchen, you can make out Talbot Whispers standing in the street, a veritable sea of ghouls around him. He looks similar to your last meeting, yet off as well. A different shade of suit, and his wispy thin hair was styled with a part.
All of which are details that you’re ignoring to stare incredulously at Jim, who is literally glowing with power. “Dude! The fuck?”
“What? You know about Godpunch. Been a while, but we’ve used his costume a few times,” Jim replies.
“Yeah, I know, because I had to scream that ridiculous line to activate his powers. The co-eds in danger one?” While Pumpkin and Thad look confused, Victoria sighs and rubs her temples.
Jim taps the hammer on the counter as he thinks, smashing it to bits. Nearby, the ghouls are starting to recover, staggering back to their feet. “Oh… OH! Yeah man, I added the new line around issue five, in case I need it to turn on the powers one day. You can’t go around screaming shit like that.”
You strangle a scream to silence in your throat, aware this isn’t the time or place for such a discussion. Besides, it’s not like he’s wrong.
A nearby gang of ghouls burst into motion, racing toward Pumpkin. They barely get three steps before a bolt of lighting white as the driven snow rips through their torsos, leaving nothing but ash behind. Jumping over to Pumpkin, you grab her shoulder and shake it. “Head in the game! You’ve seen Jim do weirder shit than this.”
“I’m not looking at Jim.” Pumpkin points out the hole in the door, and you follow her finger’s trail. Past the stampeding ghouls, past Talbot Whispers, past the roofs of repeating houses. Out to the horizon, which seems substantially closer than you remember. At first, it appears to be undulating, until the series of small motions finally become recognizable.
Gnashing mouths and grasping hands. The darkness on the horizon is a wave made of shadowy appendages annihilating anything in their path. No wonder that shape in the distance vanished earlier, the horizon reached it and there was nothing left.
“Shit shit shit!” You yank Pumpkin with you, scrambling back toward Jim as he blasts another group of ghouls. So far he’s fending them off well, but there are just so damn many of the things. You pause to try and ask where they all came from, however claps of thunder from Jim’s bolts make communication difficult.
In the end, you settle for pointing toward the slowly approaching darkness and keeping your words concise. “We have to go!”
“Not so sure they’re going to be on board with that plan,” Thad says, nodding toward the mass of monsters swarming toward the house.
“Strange, they aren’t clustered near the rear.” Victoria is checking out the back patio, revealing a yard mercifully free from any ghouls you can see. Considering the visible ones move with all the subtlety of Jim during last call, a force hiding in ambush strikes you as unlikely.
“Then make a run for it!” More bolts fly from Jim, roasting the approaching monsters and filling the air with a smell that is both horrifying and ever-so-slightly adjacent to food, which only makes it all the worse. “I’ve got a magic hammer and a duffel bag full of beer, I can stand here all night.”
A nice thought, but you can’t help raising your eyes toward that approaching wave of hungry darkness. While it’s not upon you yet, the distance is undeniably shrinking. Jim doesn’t appear to be having any trouble with Talbot or his mob; a wave of raw magical force might be another matter.
“I’d love some other suggestions,” you call out. Victoria and Pumpkin open their mouths, while Thad is busy hurling his fridge at a cluster of ghouls trying to come at Jim from the side.
Before either can speak, a horrendous wailing fills the air. Every ghoul, in unison, is screeching their undead lungs out. The noise strikes your ears like a physical force. Through the cacophony, you see Victoria’s mouth moving, probably offering up the suggestion that you flee for your lives. Pumpkin’s voice is equally silenced, though she was likely suggesting you sprint like hell.
Every second you stand there in the synchronized screaming symphony is causing your head to hurt worse, and Jim’s bolts can’t wipe them all out at once. Looks like you’d better make a choice, and you’ve got three excellent options to pick from. Make a run for it, flee for your lives, or sprint like hell.
“Wait… what,” you try to mumble, words drowned out by the cacophony of ghoul screeches.
It’s so strange that you’re confused. After all, you’re the one who wanted to take the ride off the rails. Is it really so shocking that things aren’t quite working as usual?
Now then, you have a choice to make.
What Will It Be?